Combat· Vietnam War
Cam Lo District HQ Defense
The defense of the Cam Lo district headquarters was one of the local battles of the Tet Offensive along the northern frontier, fought when Communist forces attacked the district town and its headquarters compound in Quang Tri Province near the Demilitarized Zone.
Marines, operating alongside Vietnamese forces and advisors, helped defend the position against the assault, holding the compound and the surrounding area as the enemy attempted to overrun it during the wider offensive. The action was part of the pattern of Tet attacks on district and provincial centers across I Corps, in which the allies fought to retain the local seats of government against infiltrating and assaulting enemy units. The attack on Cam Lo was repulsed and the headquarters held. It formed one of the many small but hard-fought defensive actions by which the Marines and their allies blunted the Communist offensive in the northern provinces during the Tet emergency.
Record no. 686